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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27247411">Child of War</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveGarbage/pseuds/SteveGarbage'>SteveGarbage</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>FEH Resplendent Hero shorts [18]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Heroes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Nifl (Fire Emblem), Pegasus Knight, Resplendent Hero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:49:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,178</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27247411</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveGarbage/pseuds/SteveGarbage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A short story celebrating Caeda's Resplendent Hero garb of Nifl.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>FEH Resplendent Hero shorts [18]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722151</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Child of War</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Wait up!"</p><p>Ylgr shouted as she struggled with the reins, her well-trained pegasus snorting in annoyance at the ill-trained rider but tolerating the poor control.</p><p>Caeda looked over her shoulder and spun her pegasus around, coming back to the princess' aid. The youngest princess of Nifl had the leather reins twisted and gripped in her hands too close to her mount's mane and was tugging on them with little result. The snowy plains of Nifl weren't that far below — Caeda had agreed with Price Hríd that she wouldn't take his little sister <em>too</em> high until she showed more mastery from the saddle.</p><p>"No, Ylgr, you have to hold it looser," Caeda said, sitting back in her own saddle and demonstrating to the younger girl. "Like this. Keep the lead loose and relaxed. If you're holding too tightly or pulling too much, the pegasus will be confused about what you want it to do. You apply pressure only when you want to make a change."</p><p>Ylgr glanced over and then loosened her palms, letting the reins fall out more until she was sitting more like Caeda atop her mount. The pegasus underneath her seemed to relax, slowing the beat of its wings and lowering its head a bit as the pressure eased. "Like this?"</p><p>"That's much better," Caeda said with a smile. "Your pegasus is trained to fly just as easily a cavalier's horse is trained to walk. She will move. Your job is simply to guide her where you want her to go."</p><p>Caeda remembered being not much younger than Ylgr was now when she first jumped atop her first pegasus. Her father had not objected when his daughter had wanted to learn to ride horse and pegasus at first. Then when she had gotten older and asked to be trained in the art of war atop those mounts, he had been less enthusiastic. But if the royal princess was not willing to take up lance and sword to defend Talys, how could she ever hope to inspire others to do it for her?</p><p>"I think I get it," Ylgr said.</p><p>Caeda pointed into the distance, toward the line of snow-crusted evergreen trees. "Then let's try to fly to the woods and back. Tap your pegasus with your heel and she should start moving. Then use gentle tugs, left or right, to steer where you want to go."</p><p>"OK. Here goes," Ylgr said excitedly.</p><p>Caeda glanced over at the princess' pegasus, who met eyes with her for a moment. She exchanged a glance. <em>Be good</em>, she said through her eyes to the pegasus. She snorted in understanding.</p><p>Ylgr lifted her heels and brought them down into the pegasus's side and the mount bent its wings and started to fly forward. Ylgr squealed in excitement, forgetting everything Caeda just said as she tugged back on the reins as the pegasus lurched forward, although the mount kept going.</p><p>"Ease up on the reins!" Caeda shouted as she moved her own pegasus into motion back at the princess' side.</p><p>She spent the afternoon slowly zipping back and forth across snow-covered plains, correcting Ylgr as they went until by the time the sun started setting the princess was zooming back and forth between the wood line on her own with little guidance. Ylgr begged to go higher and faster, with Caeda working to convince her that there would be another day and time for that.</p><p>Caeda remembered the way she so often ignored her trainers, the veteran pegasus knights of Talys, putting her heels hard into her mount to zip high into the sky, climbing almost directly into the sun until she was amid the lowest-hanging clouds, before she'd execute a sharp turn, have her pegasus fold its wings and dive back toward the earth, feeling the rush of wind in her face and hair until she'd pull up at the last second, skimming the clear ocean water until she felt the spray of mist across her cheeks.</p><p>By the time she was a teenager, there were few among the Talys pegasus knights who could fly as fast or as swiftly as her. The captains praised her skill and devotion often to her father, who, after many objections, had settled his mood into one of satisfied pride that his daughter had become so adept.</p><p>All of that training proved, in hindsight, to be worth the effort, because by age fourteen, Caeda was flying headfirst into a war that embroiled all of Archanea.</p><p>She and Prince Marth were, in essence, mere children at the time. And yet they plunged through battle and bloodshed, defeating enemy after enemy, until the Shadow Dragon was defeated.</p><p>She, personally, had turned many foes into friends during the war, sparing lives wherever and whenever she could. Yet, she could not forget that many lives ended at the edge of her spear and sword.</p><p>Ylgr was so much younger, though, when she watched her homeland burn and her siblings fall before the terror of Múspell. With the help of the Order of Heroes, they had succeeded in a desperate and daring attempt to defeat King Surtr, but the costs had been high.</p><p>Princess Gunntrhá had sacrificed herself at the hands of Surtr to protect the last hope of Nifl. Princess Fjorm had seized that hope, forged it into a weapon and struck down the king of flame with it, although the Rite of Frost demanded a grave price in exchange for power that the middle princess was still paying to this day.</p><p>As peace returned to Nifl, Ylgr was content to be home with family. But as time had gone on, as Fjorm's condition had worsened, the young and joyous princess' infectious happiness had begun to fade, replaced by a more serious conviction. She now wanted to learn to ride a pegasus and how to use a sword and lance and axe and bow.</p><p>Caeda had offered to train her in the ways of the pegasus knight. Prince Hríd had graciously accepted her help.</p><p>So now, Caeda watched as Ylgr zipped over the ground, face painted in big smiles and the sky filled with laughter as she flew her pegasus this way and that. Caeda smiled at Ylgr's enjoyment, happy the young princess of Nifl could at least find a moment's mirth in this time of peace.</p><p>There would be time for more serious training and devotion later. But Ylgr was so young. Once she put on the mantle of a knight, she would find she could never take it off again.</p><p>Caeda hoped to make this innocent time last as long as possible. Children needed to be children. And if war were ever to return to the snowy land of Nifl, she prayed that it would be those like her who would rise in its defense, so that Princess Ylgr might never have to.</p><p>Caeda was a child of war, raised and grown in the bloody soil of the battlefield.</p><p>She hoped, prayed, swore to do whatever she could do to ensure that she might be the last.</p>
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